


The Nightingales Return

by Scriberat



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Gen, Modded Skyrim, main character is khajiit, she does not have wares
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-27
Packaged: 2019-04-25 18:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14384604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scriberat/pseuds/Scriberat
Summary: Mad'oshi was out in the woods, camping and hunting, enjoying life away from people who weren't her own, when a dragon flew overhead. Disregarding this omen, Mad'oshi decides to hunt bandits, facing parts of herself she doesn't want to face as she grows to be a khajiit her parents would be proud of. In the end, she'll be what she always knew she'd be, even if she wanted to fight fate.





	1. Those Stupid Bandits

**Author's Note:**

> This is from a modded version of Skyrim I'm playing. See if you can recognize any of the mods I've added :D

She had been stalking her prey for awhile, finally tracking a small band of bandits to a tiny camp outside of Helgen. The morning she was about to go after them, something incredible happened, something that she couldn’t have dreamed of happening in her lifetime.

 

A dragon attacked.

 

Mad’oshi could hear the screams and shouts of orders from her camp by a cave mouth. She could hear the screaming voice of the dragon, deep and loud, echoing across the mountains and declaring to all nearby that the age of peace was _over._ Chills were still running down her spine, long after the dragon had disappeared.

 

It was hardly Mad’oshi’s business if there was a dragon about. If anyone asked, she’d tell them it was flying off toward Riverwood and Whiterun. That’d be enough, right?

 

Regardless, bandits. They would likely have also recovered from their shock at the sight of a dragon flying overhead. As Mad’oshi collected her things and prepared her camp for takeoff, she tried to dismiss the old tales her great-grandfather had told her and her older siblings about the days of old, when dragons ruled the skies, killing people, destroying land at will, fighting with each other all the time, shouting in those horrible deep voices (he was quite adept at copying them, Mad’oshi thought, now that she had something to compare the impression to.)

 

It was said that there were humans who had learned to Shout, as the dragons did, that there were still humans who did so. They were called the Greybeards, if Mad’oshi remembered correctly. She crept down the mountainside toward her quarry.

 

Those humans had managed to defeat the Bane of Kings, long ago, after the Five Hundred Companions arrived. The name of the group put a bit of a sour taste in Mad’oshi’s mouth. Even though she had been so small, had no opinion of the Companions or the things they did to her people, Mad’oshi had learned. In twenty years, she had learned well what had happened to her people.

 

She made it to a cliff face above the camp of the bandits. They were obscured by trees, but that hardly stopped her. Nocking an arrow to the string, she waited for one of the bandits to move and give away their location. One did. She fired the arrow off and missed.

 

“Shit,” she muttered. Oh, if her mother had heard her. Mad’oshi shook her head mentally. Now was not the time for distraction! The bandits were concerned about the arrow, that much was clear. They were looking for the archer. Mad’oshi nocked another arrow, then loosed it, correcting her aim. It hit, but it wasn’t a powerful hit. The bandit was still alive, and his friends had located her.

 

 _This is why you don’t stand in sunlight. May as well paint yourself bright orange and shout at them._ Mad’oshi grimaced, but it seemed that the bandits refused to come out from the tree line --- for now. Their archer made a move quickly, zipping out into the open and strafing to shoot without getting hurt. Mad’oshi was willing to bet her aim was just as bad, nocked an arrow, and dueled the other archer, killing her in a few shots. There were several arrows embedded in the ground.

 

 _Hope I can find those._ Mad’oshi focused her attention on the next bandit, seeing him peek around a tree. She shot him twice, and down he went. Smirking, Mad’oshi then dropped to the next level of the cliff faces to get the last bandit.

 

He saw her do so, decided to get brave, and charged her. Up the hill and around to her he went, brandishing his sword, prepared to strike --- until three arrows lodged themselves in his chest with all the force of a slightly underfed and tired Khajiit.

 

“Damn cat...” he muttered, going down.

 

“And don’t you forget it. Skyrim was ours, first,” Mad’oshi spat as the bandit sank to the ground. She knew that the Nords of today wouldn’t be aware of her peoples’ history. How could they be? Most of the Khajiit they encountered were Southern Khajiit, not native to the northern climates and wilds. The Northern Khajiit had been living in the land of Skyrim for much longer than the men who migrated to Tamriel.

 

Mad’oshi searched the bandit, finding little of value, save for an arrow that she recovered. She pulled another from a rock wall behind the bandit, from another miss. Then she went down to the other two, quickly grabbing septims, arrows, and a treasure map. The grass around the bandit camp was as tall as a short near-the-trees-so-there’s-not-much-sunlight grass usually was, which meant it covered arrows while giving her hope that she could find them. Of thirty steel arrows, she came back with twenty-two.

 

“Miss less. You’ll have more arrows after the battle,” Mad’oshi said, checking out the camp. She found little of interest, save for some food, some septims, enchanted robes, and… two books.

 

She took the books.

 

Mad’oshi crouched down, going toward some standing stones that she had seen several times in her travels around Skyrim. They were of the Mage, the Warrior, and the Thief. She personally liked the Thief. It had been a long time since she had asked their blessing. She went to it, tracing the stars of the thief and feeling the shadows envelop her as she did so. Part of her wondered if other races could also feel the shadows dance, but any time she asked, others told her that only crude, destructive, malignant people prayed to whatever horrid Aedra or demon presided over that stone.

 

Others said they felt nothing at all, with any stone, but touched them all the same.

 

Mad’oshi crouched down, feeling eyes on her. She whipped around, looking for whoever it was that was nearby. Down a path toward the river, there was a hunter. A blink later, Mad’oshi was walking down to talk to the hunter.

 

“Hello,” she said.

 

“Hello, there, traveler. What brings you out here?”

 

“I’ve been out hunting for some time.”

 

“Me too. I’ve been hunting and fishing in these parts for years. I know the lay of the land like the back of my hand, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Though, you look like you know how to handle yourself.”

 

“I do, indeed. Still, it would be rude of me not to take you up on your offer. Do you know anything about the woman on the other side of the river, who lived in a cabin by herself.”

 

“I don’t go near her. She gives me the creeps. Personally,” the hunter said, leaning in close, looking around. She put her hands up to Mad’oshi’s ear, and whispered, “I think she’s a witch.”

 

“A witch? Surely there’s nothing bad about that.”

 

“I wouldn’t risk it, at any rate.”

 

“It would be foolish to go near. Thank you for telling me,” Mad’oshi said.

 

“No problem!”

 

With that, Mad’oshi slipped into the river, swimming off and away, catching some fish and stuffing them into her mouth. She could feel herself getting hurt by one, helped by another. Then she reached the opposite bank.

 

“A witch, huh? Well, I doubt she’ll cause me any trouble.” Mad’oshi snuck up the bank toward the cabin, stopping again when she felt something watching her. She pulled out her bow, looking around silently, silently, hoping that whatever it was wasn’t paying much attention.

 

It was a wolf. She shot it, nearly killing it, but it wasn’t enough. The wolf ran toward her, its friend flanking, so she shot again, killing it, then turned and shot its friend. The second wolf bit her, Mad’oshi shot, and it, too, was dead. Neither of them relinquished their arrows. She pursed her lips.

 

Sighing, and shrugging, and continuing her crawl, Mad’oshi went to the witch’s house. She came up on the back of it, and walked around normally to the front. After all, this old woman was probably harmless, so there was no reason to worry.

 

“Hello, dear. Don’t mind me, I’m just a poor old woman. My name is Anise,” Anise said. Mad’oshi smiled as cheerfully and non-threateningly as she could. Sometimes having sharp teeth all over one’s mouth was obnoxious.

 

“Hello. My name is Mad’oshi. Tell me, Anise, why do you live out here by yourself?”

 

“I’m here because I prefer living alone. All of my relatives are gone, my children have moved too far away for me to reach them, and I enjoy the solitude. Besides, I have enough food here to keep me alive, and Riverwood isn’t so far away. I can reach it easily.”

 

“You do have a lovely cabin. Would it be alright for me to take a look around?”

 

“Of course, deary. Just be sure not to go into my cellar. I don’t want my precious… wine to spoil by accident.”

 

“I’ll avoid it,” Mad’oshi said, then walked into the cabin. It was a nice little place, with a cupboard that contained hagraven feathers and a deathbell; a cozy bed and bag of gold, as well as an end table, upon which was an apothecary’s satchel and a book about alchemy; and a dresser with more alchemical ingredients.

 

 _And yet, no alchemy table. It must be in the cellar._ It was bothering Mad’oshi that Anise had specified that she was “just a poor old woman.” It was highly suspect. _She’s almost certainly a witch._

 

Mad’oshi found the entrance to the cellar by the bed, and set to unlocking it quickly. She grinned as the lock came undone, and, as quietly as she could, lifted the door on its squeaky hinges, and slipped into the cellar like a wraith.

 

As soon as the cellar door shut, with more of a bang than Mad’oshi intended, Anise knew that Mad’oshi would discover her secret. She jumped up off her chair, preparing spells for when the nasty Khajiit came back up. She would have to, eventually. That room was made of stone. Even sharp claws couldn’t penetrate.

 

Mad’oshi made it down the ladder, and looked around. Boom! Alchemy table, enchanting table --- and wouldn’t you know it, she had a set of necromancer’s robes from the bandits! --- more ingredients among various shelves, a few septims, no wine whatsoever. There were a drum and a flute on a shelf together. Mad’oshi took them both. She had spent time learning to play the lute, so that she could keep herself in honest coin when she chose.

 

She did not currently own a lute. The last one got smashed on a particularly bad mountain climb awhile back.

 

After disenchanting the robes and nabbing some ingredients to try (golly gee, deathbells hurt,) Mad’oshi headed for the ladder. As she did, though, she saw something interesting. It was a letter, addressed to a young woman.

 

_Helgi, dear, why do you hesitate? You can feel the power coursing through your blood! You have only to reach out and grasp it! Renounce that boy of your and come, come live with me in the forest. My sister will be here soon. Together, we can form a proper coven, and your training will truly begin._

 

“Poor, poor Helgi. I wonder who she is.” Mad’oshi shrugged. Some things would never be known, she supposed. She also wondered who Anise’s sister was. If the other woman was too far away to simply travel to, then she must be in another Hold. Mad’oshi went up the ladder.

 

“Fool! None may know my secret!” Anise shouted, as soon as Mad’oshi came out. Raising an eyebrow and her fists, Mad’oshi zipped around the corners of the cabin toward the angry witch outside.

 

“You wanna dance!?” The Khajiit charged at the witch, claws out and tearing at flesh, as hands burned her. It was desperate. It was quick. Anise was dead, rather suddenly. Mad’oshi stood back, glaring at the corpse before looting it for septims and dragging it back into the cabin, setting it on the bed.

 

“There. Now people will think you’re just sleeping,” Mad’oshi said, tucking Anise in. It was the least she could do. Hopefully, the smell would keep people away. She didn’t feel like digging a grave for an enemy, now or ever, but just leaving the body out felt wrong.

 

Mad’oshi figured that was just how she was, or something.

 

She left the cabin behind, now setting her sights on pillars of rock that soared into the sky. It was Bleak Falls Burrow, a place that had become infested by bandits recently. She wondered if they were the source of the attacks on the roads between Riverwood and Falkreath. The placement didn’t seem quite right, but it was as likely a place as any.

 

She bent down on the ground at the base of the mountains, aiming for a tower that was separate from the Barrow itself. It was a likely candidate for bandit guards. With a powerful leap, Mad’oshi made it a substantial way up the mountain, continuing to find footholds and climb the mountain, all the time watching a hawk circle around the tower.

 

It was a much more successful attempt than the time she broke her lute.

 

At the base of the tower, Mad’oshi pulled out her bow, and sought a bandit to kill. She found one on a bridge leading into the tower itself. However, he saw her before she could shoot. While he still died on the spot with a couple arrows sticking out of him (and another flown off into the distance,) his seeing her first alerted the guards nearby to her presence. They came for her. She killed one bandit just before she reached her, then the other started after her.

 

Hiding on the other side of the tower didn’t work, which left Mad’oshi to fight. She shot the bandit as he swung at her, ducking back before the blow could land. The next one did, a cut to the shoulder. She shot again. He swung. She shot, he died.

 

She looted the bodies, pulling up septims and arrows. Thanking whatever Aedra was watching for twenty-nine arrows on one idiot archer, Mad’oshi made her way into the tower and up the stairs. She found a chest at the top, and looted it. It contained several pieces of jewelry, a couple potions, and a few septims.

 

Next was the hawk. Mad’oshi clambered onto the tower’s top wall, exposed from wear and lack of repair. She searched around for it, looking all over the tower, swinging this way and that, jumping to another wall, then spotted the hawk in its nest. She aimed carefully. The nest exploded. The hawk fell to the ground, curled up and dead.

 

Its beak restored her strength a little.

 

Mad’oshi made her way around the mountainside to the Barrow beyond it. It was magnificent. Standing tall and strong in a cold grey stone that stood out against the white of the snow, Bleak Falls Barrow demanded the attention of any who approached it.

 

There was a bandit standing guard on the far side of the Barrow, close to Mad’oshi. She shot and missed. Twice. The bandit and his friends came down the stairs. Mad’oshi missed over and over again. At least she was using the iron arrows she’d been obtaining, instead of her good steel.

 

She did manage to do some damage, to the point that the first guard died on his way to kill her, another died just before reaching her despite five arrows or so hitting the ground and not her, and a duel between Mad’oshi and the archer of their group ended quickly. Still, she knew what her problem with aim was.

 

“You’re gripping too tightly. Don’t snatch,” Mad’oshi said quietly. Her words didn’t echo off the mountains, which she was happy about. It’d be embarrassing if someone heard that. She prided herself on being able to shoot well. A bad day would not reflect well.

 

The corpses had the usual bits. She got more arrows. There were now fewer bandits to terrorize people. Picking up arrows from where she had missed over and over again, Mad’oshi reminded herself continually not to grip so tightly. She relaxed her shoulders, forcing herself to calm down and handle the situation calmly. Mad’oshi climbed the stairs, going to the Barrow’s doors. She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, then pushed the door open and went inside. Perhaps she should have rested. After all, it was getting late, and she was already kind of tired from that morning.

 

Damn dragon.

 

Inside, Mad’oshi found a lot of dead skeevers, at least one dead bandit, and two definitely alive bandits who were on the other side of the room. Pursing her lips, Mad’oshi nocked an arrow. She set herself to the basics, breathing in as she drew, but before she finished, she heard the bandits talking.

 

“So we’re just supposed to sit here while Arvel runs off with that golden claw?”

 

“That dark elf wants to go on ahead, let him. Better than us risking our necks.”

 

“What if Arvel doesn’t come back? I want my share from that claw!”

 

“Just shut up and keep an eye out for trouble. Besides, what’s the worst he could encounter? Spiders? Draugr?”

 

And out went the breath as Mad’oshi shot, watched the arrow hit one bandit in the back, cutting off a hearty laugh. He turned in shock and started toward her --- directly into her second perfectly shot arrow.

 

 _Take that._ The second bandit came around a large support pillar, and Mad’oshi, now back in her groove, shot the woman twice, felling her before she even noticed the dark furred Khajiit among the shadows of the room. Mad’oshi went around, checking skeever corpses for anything that wasn’t a tail. As nice as it was to be hurt by eating a tail, Mad’oshi didn’t feel like having that happen at that particular moment. She looted a couple other bandit corpses, found nothing of interest on the second bandit she shot, and moved toward the firepit they had lit.

 

There, a skeever had four septims.

 

“Bingo. Always check the corpses,” Mad’oshi said, grinning. She looted the other bandit, stealing his gold and arrows. There was a chest that had a lock on it nearby. Clearly, they had already found some stuff whilst robbing this place, and decided to put it in here.

 

Well, their jewelry and coins were hers, now. Mad’oshi went deeper into the Barrow.

 

The dungeon was dank, and dark. Mad’oshi crept down the winding hallway, stopping for a moment to check for a chest at the top of a collapsed stairwell. There was nothing there, so she continued forward, bow in hand. After turning a corner, she spied a bandit up ahead. Her hand flexed on the bow. He didn’t notice her, but was moving forward into the room. She watched him, carefully going down a flight of stairs between them.

 

He pulled a lever. Then he was shot from all sides and died. Mad’oshi sniffed sharply, taken aback. She had been wandering the upper levels of Skyrim for awhile, but hadn’t delved much into the dungeons of the land, until she started hunting bandits. She had never been in a place like this.

 

How was the trap still working?

 

Regardless, there was a body on the floor, and some tasty loot to take from it. Robbing bandits was something Mad’oshi was alright with. After all, they had robbed first. It was just using their logic on them.

 

She walked into the room. It was alright to be here, as long as she didn’t touch the lever until she figured out how to undo the trap. There had to be a way deeper in. Otherwise, the lovely iron gate on the other side of the room wouldn’t clearly lead somewhere further. Mad’oshi looked around the room, finding three stone pillars set on disks, two stone faces depicting a snake on the left and a whale on the right with a broken bit of wall between them, and a third face on the ground, also depicting a snake. The pillars were engraved with snakes, whales, and hawks.

 

“I see,” Mad’oshi said, walking over to the pillars. She glanced up at the snake face on the left, then turned the leftmost pillar until its snake face faced outward. Then, she went to the middle, connecting the dots between the broken wall and second snake face. With two pillars turned to the snake, she turned the third and final pillar to the whale.

 

Mad’oshi walked to the lever, set her back to the gate, then pulled and dashed backward. The gate was open. No shots were fired. She made it through.

 

A health potion sat on a stone table, as if congratulating her on getting through the puzzle. Mad’oshi stuffed it in her bag, along with a soul gem. She had no use for them --- yet. There was a rumor that whispered and wafted from one adventurer to another of an enchantment that could bind souls to soul gems. Mad’oshi wanted it.

 

There was also a copy of the book _Thief._ She grabbed it, partly for nostalgia, partly because, as she flipped through the pages, she realized she had been too young to understand its secrets properly.

 

A curling set of stairs led deeper into the barrow. Mad’oshi went down quietly, but skeevers have sensitive ears. They often know you’re around before you do. One came after her, but after fighting bandits and getting better with her bow, Mad’oshi was ready for the challenge. She downed the first, second, and third easily, one after another. With them dispatched, she continued downward.

 

There was a scroll that could cast a fireball and a bottle of paralysis poison sitting on a table. Mad’oshi passed them by. She had no need for either. Besides, there would be plenty of treasure further along.

 

Down the hall some more was calling. Mad’oshi blinked. She thought that, with the pillars being not in place, the gate closed, and all that, that there were no more bandits. Yet there it was again, someone calling for help.

 

A chest was sitting by itself, all lonely, in a thick bed of webbing. Ignoring the stranger’s calls for help, and wondering briefly if Harknjir, Bjorn, and Soling were still alive, Mad’oshi opened the chest, gathering the gold and jewelry, and leaving the armor behind. If it was heavy, or worse than her own, she didn’t bother with it.

 

Finally, she decided to cut open the webs that were over the door leading further in. Odd, that it would be like that.

 

She saw someone on the other side of the webby, heavily egg-sacked, corpsed up room for a solid second before her eyes caught a _giant fucking spider descending from the ceiling._

 

“Fuck.”

 

She shot it, of course. That thing was ready to eat people, if the shapes of some of those corpses --- probably the lucky bastard’s friends --- were anything to go by.

 

The spider, predictably, did not like being shot by arrows, so when it landed, it tried to kill whatever tried to kill it. It was going to do so anyway, of course. It could feel the webs over the opening thing that the little foods walked through being torn up.

 

This little food had tasty claws. The spider liked tasty claws. It spat at the weird thing, which ducked back into the opening.

 

The spider was too big to get through, though. Mad’oshi smirked, watching the spider as it spat again. She kept up the game, ducking around the door when it came close, shooting it as it went toward the guy in the webs.

 

“Don’t let it get me!” he shouted. Mad’oshi rolled her eyes. He was good bait, at any rate, if a bit annoying. She’d have him saved in a moment… there!

 

The spider fell to the ground, dead. Mad’oshi raided its corpse for a few of the remaining arrows. It had enough of the frostbite venom that came from these spiders to fill two vials. Mad’oshi went around the room, looting the corpses and finding gold and lockpicks, ate a spider egg for science, then turned toward the dumbass in the webs.

 

“Get me down from here already! What’s taking you so long?”

 

“Your yelling is making me not like you. You are also loud, and it hurts my ears to be near you,” Mad’oshi said. The man took a deep breath.

 

“I need help getting down. Can you break this web?”

 

“Sure. Same way I got in, yeah? I can have you down in a hot second.”

 

“Great! Then, please--”

 

“But why would I? What are you doing here in the first place?”

 

“I’m hunting for treasure. I can give you half, if you help me get to it.”

 

“Is that so? What is this treasure?”

 

“It’s untold! You won’t believe the power the Nords have hidden here!”

 

“Power?” Mad’oshi wanted to know what kind of power, but figured it’d be explained when they got to this treasure. “How do we reach it?”

 

“There’s a hall of stories, and a golden claw, and some markings. I know how they all fit together!” It was enough for Mad’oshi. A weird person who was lucky enough to be left alive by a giant spider, treasure, some power. It was sounding good. On top of that, this guy was obviously a bandit. No one quite smelled like that unless they were a road thief.

 

Mad’oshi sheathed her bow, and, moving quickly, cut the man down.

 

“My name is Mad’oshi,” Mad’oshi said, bowing.

 

“Arvel. But it doesn’t matter, anyway. There’s no way I’m sharing that treasure!” Mad’oshi sighed. This always happened with bandits. Trust leads to betrayal. Arvel ran down the corridor, into a room with burial urns. Mad’oshi caught up to him quickly.

 

“Think you can get away!?” She clawed him twice, then grabbed him around the middle and suplexed him, breaking his neck. His corpse had coins, lockpicks, and… a golden claw.

 

Mad’oshi suddenly remembered the two bandits back in the first room, and the third who had been shot to death by arrows. That answered where his friends were.

 

Oops?

 

Loot was sitting in burial urns. Not a gem was in sight, but there were septims, so that was nice.

 

She snuck down ever more stairs, wondering how deep this place was. When she saw how high the ceiling got in the next room, she realized that this place was meant to look artistic --- which made sense, considering the corpses in the walls. As she moved further in, one of the corpses moved.

 

 _Spiders and Draugr, just like the bandit said. Good predictions, road thief._ She shot it. It kept getting up, upset at being hit so early in the morning. Another arrow put the draugr to sleep permanently. There were more, though. She fired off four more arrows, killing both of them. One of them had a better bow, and even had arrows on it that were still operable.

 

“Sweet.”

 

She checked the corpses on the walls for more loot, quickly noting that only those that were wrapped or had skin still had their things. Presumably, the precious things of older corpses were given back to living family members, or else they were just stolen long ago. Mad’oshi added to that problem, lifting gold and lockpicks as she pleased.

 

At the very least, she wasn’t a murderous road thief.

 

…she really tried to feel like she wasn’t just a well-dressed and properly bathed bandit.

 

Once she had looted the whole place, Mad’oshi moved forward, careful to step around a pressure plate in the floor that was most likely attached to the big spiked wall on hinges.

 

She was almost certain, but she’d hate to step on it to test it and find out that the floor dropped out behind the plate to kill the curious cat.

 

Now she was in a small hall again, but had a better sense of where draugr were. She killed one before it could get to her, before it was even fully aroused. She noted the entry hole of the arrow, and something in her brain clicked. Mad’oshi killed another that was standing in a wall well in a single shot, having figured out how to shoot harder, and then felled two more that were standing in the same way. The second surprised her, coming from her side of the wall where she couldn’t see it. Had she not heard it waking up, it would have come down on top of her.

 

There were swinging axes making one hell of a ruckus. There was also a chest. Mad’oshi made her choice, going for the chest first. It was locked, but simply, and opened quickly under her skillful hands. One thing that wandering for twenty years had taught Mad’oshi was how to pick a lock, as well as how to get out a window in the middle of the night without being seen, heard, or properly awake.

 

It was unnerving, the number of times she had gone to sleep by a nice warm fire in some stranger’s house and woken up in the bushes outside.

 

With the chest’s goods in pack, including more potions, Mad’oshi set herself up to sprint through the blades. Undoubtedly, there would be more draugr on the other side. No matter. They’d fall, too. She could feel the air break around her as she slashed through it with her body. She felt the blades whistle toward her, cutting the air behind her. She felt the cold metal of a chain as her hand pulled it before she even knew she was safe.

 

Draugr did, indeed, fall. Mad’oshi was surprised at how easy it was to go through the dungeon. It was like breathing air to her. She noted lamps hanging from the ceiling, and oil on the floor. It’d be dangerous to mix the two.

 

A tunnel led into the rock itself, and at the end was a nice little cavern with a waterfall, and a stream, and two sarcophagi on the other _oh what the fuck._ A draugr busted its sarcophagus open. Mad’oshi shot it before it got out. She then looted a chest and the body, turning to see where she could go next. There was a drainage gate with a chain next to it. She pulled the chain and went through the opening.

 

At the end of the stream’s walkable path, past some shock resisting glow mushrooms and a troll skull, there was a chest. Inside the chest was a health potion, some gold, and armor that was enchanted to increase the health of the wearer. It had the same feel to it as Mad’oshi’s own armor, so she replaced it quickly. Then, she went down a side path, not bothering to look over the edge of the waterfall the stream became where sunlight fell into the cave.

 

There was a draugr on a stone bridge. A second later, and there was now a dead draugr on a stone bridge. Mad’oshi grabbed its septims, then looked down. She saw a pool of water. Mad’oshi hopped off the edge of the bridge, falling lightly and painlessly to the watery ground below. A chest sat on some rocks, containing the usual loot: septims, potions, jewelry. Mad’oshi snagged it all. Then she climbed back up the rocks, leaping from one to the next until she had reached the top.

 

The path continued up to one last room. There was one brazier lit in the corner, and a draugr pacing back and forth. Mad’oshi shot it, nocking another arrow on instinct as the first hit. The draugr didn’t die. Pursing her lips, Mad’oshi shot it again, and then a third time. When it went down, her lips unpursed and grinned.

 

“Suck on that,” she muttered, looking over the corpse. It didn’t even have any gold.

 

There was a wooden door, which Mad’oshi went through. On the other side, she found more hallway, and then a blade trap --- again. Sprinting through and pulling the chain, Mad’oshi whipped out her bow and shot at a draugr that was rising from its stone coffin. The first shot flew over it, the second shot landed. More draugr came down an incline. Mad’oshi picked them off easily. She crept forward again, careful not to fall through the cracks of a cistern-shaped hole that most likely killed people by the fall, assuming they didn’t hit the large wooden beams first.

 

A few potions and a couple soul gems were lying about. Mad’oshi collected them, then stepped carefully through an oil trap, moving forward to a strange hallway.

 

Carvings covered the walls, depicting histories long past, stories of old times. Mad’oshi recognized a few, more or less. There was someone important in the center of one of them, someone with a pretty freaky looking mask on. She hoped she never encountered that mask. Ever.

 

At the end of the hall was a massive locked door. The lock, however, was unlike anything Mad’oshi had ever seen, and needed a special three-pronged key. She pulled out the golden claw, looked at it from all angles, noted the bear, the moth, and the owl. On the door, there were three symbols, but none of them were right. Mad’oshi turned one experimentally, until it clicked into place. She turned it again, and it showed the owl symbol, the correct one for it. She then turned the other two into place, set the claw into the three-pronged hole, the door slid into the floor, and Mad’oshi went in.

 

Far beyond, in the deep yet lit recesses of the massive cavern, was a sarcophagus, two tables, and a large stone wall. There were also waterfalls, places to hide chests, if Mad’oshi’s instincts were correct. She searched the sides, finding chests and loot, as expected. Then, she went to the sarcophagus. It occurred to her that whatever was sleeping here might wake up. She decided not to disturb it too much.

 

The wall was an interesting find in and of itself, though the markings were foreign to her. Perhaps she had seen them once, when she was a tiny child of three or four, but that was before she had learned to read, or write, or anything, and it didn’t look like a language she knew, even now.

 

Mad’oshi touched the wall. The markings were so curious. She wanted to know what they said. All of a sudden, the sarcophagus burst open. Mad’oshi turned around, nocking, aiming, and shooting in the time it took to register where her enemy was. He had three arrows in his chest before he started really coming after her. This draugr was equipped with an axe. As long as she kept him at a distance---

 

“FUS~ RO DAH!” Mad’oshi’s head slammed into the wall, her senses whited out entirely, she nearly lost her grip on her bow. Shaking her head to clear it as she recovered, Mad’oshi shot poorly at the draugr. He was strong, much stronger than any enemy she had ever encountered.

 

She sheathed her bow, clawed the draugr, then reached into her instincts and started hitting him faster. He died quickly once she did.

 

The draugr had an ice enchanted axe, some nice loot, and some weird stone thing with the same language on the back as on the wall. Mad’oshi left it alone. Then, she snagged a soul gem on one of the tables, and walked out of Bleak Falls Barrow.

 

She took the blue flowers off the pedestal, too.


	2. This Freakin' Necromancer

Mad’oshi had made it to the other side of Bleak Falls Barrow. Now, she stood on the edge of a mountain, unsure of where to go. She closed her eyes, letting the wind dance over her face, tickling her whiskers and alighting her senses with new information. Ahead of her was a large expanse of water, the waves lapping the shore as the night wind swept over Skyrim. The smell of fish rose to her nostrils, making Mad’oshi feel hungry.

 

What really caught her attention, however, was the sound of open space. A large cave was to her right, enticing her with the promise of a spelunking adventure like the one she’d just been on. Distracted from her endeavor to hunt bandits, Mad’oshi jumped down the mountainside, sliding down the rocky surface with practiced ease.

 

Tall and sheer cliffs stoof between her and her goal, but the khajiit would not be deterred. She leapt across the mountain faces, lithe as a cat, fearless as a goat. Soon enough, the entrance to the cave stood beneath her. Mad’oshi dropped down to face it.

 

She recognized it, more or less. Travelers sometimes spoke of it in taverns. This was a way from Falkreath Hold to Whiterun Hold: Brittleshin Pass.

 

Mad’oshi had heard that the undead walked inside. A few hours ago, she would have laughed at such a notion and called it ridiculous. Now, holding onto an ancient Nord bow, she prepared to face more draugr, and spun a ring on her finger that held an enchantment to improve one’s archery.

 

Sliding down into Brittleshin Pass, Mad’oshi was at once struck by how obvious it was that the place was forged, and not formed. Men had made it –– part of it, at least. And someone had laid a frost trap on the floor in front of a pair of open doors. Mad’oshi crept around the frost trap, pushing one of the doors closed. Then, she reopened it, shimmying around it. The frost trap remained unactivated, blissfully untouched.

 

There was movement ahead. Mad’oshi’s ears flicked, tracing the sound of… something. It was on her left. She scanned from the right, in case the sound of whatever it was was too loud for her to hear something else in the room. Nocking an arrow, Mad’oshi prepared to face her opponent. She saw a skull from her viewpoint at the entrance to the room, and fired.

 

The skull exploded off its skeleton. That attracted a second skeleton that she hadn’t heard, as it hadn’t moved previously. Apparently, the issue here was not draugr. The second skeleton started moving around its friend’s corpse, looking for the cause of the issue. Mad’oshi snuck to the edge of the precipice that looked over the skeletons.

 

The first was in approximately two hundred pieces, give or take a few still-attached bones. The second was running up a set of stairs. It disappeared behind a pillar, but that was alright. It hadn’t lost its will to fight yet. Mad’oshi could sense its frustration at not being able to find her. Her whiskers trembled, her brain screamed about danger. Once the skeleton reappeared, it was close to giving up and going back to its rounds.

 

It walked right past a chest that probably had some loot in it. Mad’oshi licked her lips, nocking another arrow. The skeleton paused for a moment, then kept walking nice and slow. Mad’oshi, with all of her lack of skill at hitting moving targets, managed to hit this one. It, too, exploded into pieces.

 

“That could be a problem,” Mad’oshi muttered, staring at all of the bones on the ground.

 

A quick exploration of the room revealed nothing in it but the corpses and the chest. The corpses had nothing of value on them, aside from their weapons. Mad’oshi had no interest in those. She jumped up to the chest’s ledge, launching high into the air and nearly hitting her head on an iron spike ball. The height gave her a good view of the trap mechanism the spike ball was attached to.

 

Hardly a sound was to be heard as Mad’oshi touched the ground, absorbing the impact expertly. The moment she knew she was good to go, she was unlocking the mechanism. The chest itself was locked, which was even more of an enticing picture. After all, how wonderful would it be to encounter a totally free chest, complete with a lock that meant it had something good inside –– only to have iron spikes drive themselves into your skull?

 

The trap was simple enough. A hook in the chest maintained pressure on a line that kept the ball in place. Once the pressure was released by the chest opening, the line went slack, and the ball fell down. Mad’oshi put a different pressure point on the line, and cut it further up. With that done, she opened the chest itself. Its lock was simple, too. She cracked it easily.

 

Inside were six septims, two amethyst, and a soul gem. Mad’oshi took those, and moved on toward the rest of the pass.

 

The next room contained cages, and a lot of blood. Mad’oshi swallowed hard. The stench of death was cloying. She could smell ash, too, and smoke, and burning leather, and burning _flesh_ ––

 

Now was not the time!

 

Turning the corner, Mad’oshi saw a skeleton, and drew to shoot. Before she did, however, she also saw a man on a rise, bent over a table. Cocking her head to the side, Mad’oshi considered her courses of action for a moment. She could shoot the skeleton first, and the man would probably come down. Or, she could shoot the man and have to deal with both.

 

She shot the skeleton. The arrow soared off her bow and through the air, arcing gracefully into one of its ribs, cracking the bone and splintering it beyond repair. The skeleton fell apart and hit the ground. Above it, the man didn’t even look up. He hadn’t noticed.

 

_You’ve got to be kidding._

 

How does someone not notice such loud things? The crack of the bow alone echoed around the chamber!

 

The next arrow Mad’oshi fired went straight into the man’s back. _That_ caught his attention. He whipped around, his eyes wild and fearful. She could practically taste the terror –– or at least, she could have, had the air not been so utterly infused with decay.

 

“Who’s there!? Show yourself!” he cried. Mad’oshi shot another arrow at him, this one going for the leg. He dodged it. The next one hit, right in his chest. Instead of dying like a normal person, this one kept standing. Mad’oshi supposed it might be because of his studies in death. He had found a way to make himself more difficult to kill.

 

Still, without much skill in hitting moving targets, especially any that were going at more than a meander, Mad’oshi decided to duck back behind the corner as he ran around the room, trying to find who hit him. For whatever reason, he failed to realize that looking where the arrow came from would be the best place to start.

 

Once he stopped flitting about like a chicken with its head cut off, Mad’oshi would finish him off. His footsteps went away, so she took the opportunity to look around and see if he was in sight. He was, for a moment. Then he went behind his cages, and _hey. Wasn’t that woman dead?_

 

She had been. It explained the skeletons.

 

The necromancer (what else could he be?) had raised himself another little follower. He came out from behind the cages, having healed himself up with some magic. Mad’oshi had also seen him summon a shield earlier.

 

Magicians and their magic. Mad’oshi didn’t use any, herself. She found it more cumbersome than she liked. Besides, she had better luck with the bow, for all her limitations with it.

 

“I could have sworn I heard something,” said the necromancer. That was Mad’oshi’s cue. She nocked her bow and aimed, shooting him as soon as she had a shot. It hit!

 

“You’ll soon join me, cat!”

 

The next two didn’t, but his ice crystals did. Even so, he backed himself into a corner. Mad’oshi fired a couple more arrows until he went down, and let out a large breath.

 

“Not likely that I will be,” she replied, walking to the skeleton. It was on the way. Its bones had an amethyst wedged in them. She pocketed it, then moved to the old woman who had been in the cage. She was nothing but ash, now. It was unfortunate.

 

It was also unfortunate that she had a lovely silver necklace.

 

The necromancer himself had a filled soul gem on his person. It was concerning, as that was a living creature’s soul at point, but understandable. What use did someone who raises the dead for a living have for living beings?

 

Up on the platform he had been bent over, Mad’oshi found a skeleton that still had six septims on it. She also found an enchanting table, a blessed dagger, a minor healing potion, and four new books. They looked interesting. Flipping open _The Book of Daedra_ , Mad’oshi needed only read a part of the first page to understand that its contents had to do with necromancy, as well.

 

She stuffed it into her bag, along with the other three. Then, she disenchanted the dagger on the table, gaining knowledge of an enchantment that would allow her to put fear into undead and force them to flee the battle. She also disenchanted a ring of alteration, giving her the ability to fortify alteration spells.

 

Like she’d ever need it.

 

Near the door Mad’oshi had come through was a table with a tunic on it, as well as a human heart in a bloody bowl. Mad’oshi stared at it, swallowing. She went down the stairs and approached the heart. It was likely that it could be used in alchemy. In fact, she was almost certain, and she wouldn’t know any of its effects if she didn’t at least try to eat it.

 

Her mother always said she should try everything once, though that had led to her eating yellow snow once.

 

Once.

 

Mad’oshi picked up the heart, swallowed a nervous lump in her throat, and took a chunk out of it. Then she swallowed it, and waited a moment for the effe–

 

Oh, that hurt like _hell._ She was never doing that again.

 

Mad’oshi left the rest of the heart behind, not wanting to look at it. It made her sick. She focused her attention on the second cage. It had nothing in it, save for two of her iron arrows. They ended up back in the quiver. At that moment, a slight breeze caught her attention. This air was fresh, and when Mad’oshi looked to its source, she saw snow.

 

That meant that the outside world was peeking in here. The breeze felt great. Mad’oshi was so intent on relieving herself of the cloy of death and decay that she almost missed a large chest that was blue in color standing right next to her when she moved to the light.

 

Inside the chest was a magicka potion, a pair of hide boots, and fifty four septims. Mad’oshi took the septims and left the rest.

 

The snow-covered spot was at the top of a spiraling incline. Mad’oshi heard the creak of a skeleton, nocked, and shot it down. A friend of its came to investigate. She shot it, too, then descended quickly, wishing to be out of this place and into the proper fresh air.

 

Neither of the skeletons had anything of note on them. That was alright. The air down here was cool, and fresh. Mad’oshi could handle being here for a moment. She sneaked into some bushes that had decided to grow, spotting what looked like a soul gem hovering over a pedestal. That was not alright.

 

It certainly wasn’t natural. A floating soul gem had to be some sort of trap. Mad’oshi had a feeling that the best way to dismantle this one would be to shoot the gem down. Soul gems power things, and removing the source of energy would cause the trap to shut down.

 

Her first arrow went high, sailing over and clattering unseen into Oblivion. Mad’oshi hoped that whatever Daedra got hit by it liked it. She shot a second one at the bottom of the gem, and it fell to the pedestal. With that done, Mad’oshi swooped in and grabbed both it and her arrow. She gave up on the other one after searching through more bushes and around the staircase.

 

The passageway beyond that trap room led directly to Skyrim. As much as Mad’oshi wanted out, and to be away from this place, she had things she wanted to do in Falkreath. She turned on her heel and went back the way she came.

 

Outside, Mad’oshi took a moment to recollect herself. It was late, and she had her bedroll with her. There was no way she was leaving it behind. Deciding to retreat into the first room, Mad’oshi made a small camp near the frost trap, still without activating it. She grabbed a linen wrap from a pile nearby, and dropped it onto the trap. Nothing happened.

 

She made dinner, a soup of potato and cabbage. It wasn’t the tastiest thing in the world. Mad’oshi searched her belongings for salmon. She _loved_ fish, to the point that one of her friends had managed to convince her to run naked across Solitude for a five-course meal of fish.

 

After they had parted ways (and served jailtime), he went to see the eastern side of Skyrim, and she had gone south. That was when she had followed the southern Whiterun road past Riverwood, when she had been camping during the dragon attack.

 

That reminded her… hadn’t it been going toward Riverwood? Considering the power of the dragons of legend, it was likely that no one survived the attack, and everyone was either crushed or burned to death. Mad’oshi felt like she should tell someone, someone important who could do something. But who?

 

Maybe the Jarl of Falkreath. He was kind of a fop, though, from what Mad’oshi had heard. Things were happening in Falkreath, and he was having difficulty handling them. It happened sometimes. Mad’oshi felt like helping out –– surreptitiously, if need be.

 

For now, she needed sleep, and rolled up in her bedroll.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment if you wish ^^ this is a shorter chapter than I usually post, but I am somewhat tired right now. Still, we're getting some sort of plot-ish thing going now

**Author's Note:**

> Comment if you wish, talk about the parts you like, the parts you dislike, the weird little ticks in my writing style. Comments are the lifeblood of authors, and while I'll be writing this story whether there are comments or not, its continuation may end up relying on you vocally wanting it.
> 
> Also, if you like this story (and possibly my other ones) you can follow me on tumblr @scriberat


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